INFORMATION
BOOKLET
Ten Touch, Cambodia
WHAT IS END THE CYCLE?
End the Cycle is a community awareness initiative that seeks to promote the human
rights and empowerment of people with a disability living in poor countries.
The initiative aims to make people aware of the cycle of poverty and disability, and
global poverty, and to engage them in action to help End the Cycle.
We are asking people to join people with a disability around the world and say:
“I believe people with disabilities in the poorest countries are often caught in a
cycle of poverty and disability.” “I commit to speak out with people with
disabilities for their rights to End the Cycle.”
End the Cycle provides people with the resources to be able to do this – factsheets,
photographs, video clips and educational lesson-plans.
These resources are all developed based on the words of those people with disabilities
themselves – people from poor countries sharing their own lived experience of disability.
Uniquely, End the Cycle aims to achieve its objectives by practising inclusion. People
with a disability and their organisations have participated in every stage of our resource
development, retaining control over the use of their own words and images.
WHY IS END THE CYCLE NEEDED?
More and more, people are engaging with global poverty, and seeking to do their bit to
change the situation. Campaigns like Make Poverty History and Micah Challenge have
helped people become aware of the extent of global poverty, the fact that we are making
progress on the eradication of poverty and that we all have a part to play.
People with disabilities are often unintentionally left out of actions and thinking. While
global estimates suggest people with disabilities make up 15% of the population,1
people with a disability are over-represented in the poorest of the poor: one in five
people living in poverty have a disability2 and tends to be regarded by their own
communities as the most disadvantaged.
• Approximately 80% of those with
disabilities globally live in developing
countries.3
• Children with a disability are less likely
than their peers without a disability to start
school.4
• 1/3 of the world’s 72 million children not
in school have a disability.5
• People with disabilities are the world's
largest minority, making up 15% of the
population.6
• Approximately 426 million people with a
disability in developing countries live below
the poverty line and are often among the
15 to 20 per cent most vulnerable and
marginalized.7
• Women with disabilities are one of the
most marginalized groups in society, facing
discrimination on account of their
gender and their disability. This leads to
higher rates of abuse and domestic
violence, and less access to education,
health care and employment than men
with disabilities.8
Disability as a Cause and Consequence of
Poverty
There is a very strong link between poverty and disability, creating a cycle where
disability is both a cause and consequence of poverty:
Extreme poverty causes disability through many factors including lack of access to
adequate nutrition,
preventative and curative health care, clean water and sanitation, and unsafe working
conditions.
Disability contributes to and deepens poverty on an individual, family and community
level due to discrimination and institutional and attitudinal barriers. So a person with a
disability and their family are less likely to have access to rehabilitation, education, skills
training and employment opportunities - opportunities which could otherwise reduce
poverty. Source: Based on DFID (2002), DFID, London
This is why it is so important to include people with a disability across all sectors of
international development. Empowering people with a disability to receive a worthwhile
education, access health and rehabilitation services, gain a livelihood and participate
fully in society is essential to End the Cycle of poverty and disability. Not only is
inclusion of people with a disability essential to End the Cycle of poverty and disability,
it is also important to help make international aid more effective. When spending on aid
and development includes people with a disability, it can then reach the poorest and
most marginalised people.
WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT END THE CYCLE
End the Cycle has been developed (and continues to evolve) with real and genuine
participation of people with a disability. Through partnerships with local Disabled
People’s Organisations (DPOs), our resource collection teams include people with a
disability from the communities we visit.
The process to develop the stories, videos, photos and factsheets involves people with a
disability each step of the way - from deciding who to interview, to taking of photos and
video footage, to the selection of stories and images - all the way to final approval of the
end result. This ensures continuing adherence to the principles of local ownership,
participation and two-way accountability.
As an example, People with Disabilities Solomon Islands (PWDSI) was a local partner we
worked with. PWDSI is a national, disability non-profit organization fully run by
volunteers. It is an advocacy organization, speaking up for the rights of people with a
disability in the Solomon Islands. The work is done by people with disabilities for people
with disabilities.
PWDSI upholds the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Savina Nongebatu, President of
PWDSI says End the Cycle is a “great initiative and this project will no doubt help
us in our advocacy fight in the Solomon Islands.”
A second example has been CDPO, the Cambodian Disabled People’s Organisation. CDPO
is a movement of Cambodians with disabilities and was established in September 1994.
It is a membership-based, non- governmental federation of disabled people’s
organisations. CDPO exists to develop networks of people with a disability so as to
support, protect, serve and promote their rights, achievement, and interests, in order to
bring about their fuller participation and equality in society.
Mr Ngin Saorath, Executive Director of CDPO, said End the Cycle is “useful for the life
of people with a disability and could show to the world about the real life of
people with disabilities in developing countries. CDPO really appreciate the
project.”
Wherever possible, End the Cycle uses people’s own words – people with a disability
expressing their own experiences of poverty and disability in their own ways. Speaking
out for yourself is both a powerful and empowering strategy. People from a range of
backgrounds, including minority groups, have been involved in the process wherever
possible. End the Cycle resources use words and images which challenge prejudice and
promote equal opportunities for all.
And End the Cycle is strongly based on the principles of the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of People with Disabilities. The Convention is the key international
framework for inclusion developed largely by people with disabilities.
What Can I Do To Help End The Cycle?
Get involved! By joining End the Cycle, our collective voice can be
heard loud and clear – we’ll have a movement of people speaking up
alongside people with a disability in resource-poor countries.
Sign on to the End the Cycle statement and ask everyone you know to
do the same!
Raise your voice with people with a disability: tell friends and family
about this important issue.
Talk to international organisations that you support and find out how
they are including people with a disability in all their work.
Look at the resources available on the End the Cycle website – use
them to learn more about the cycle of poverty and disability yourself, and
share them with others.
End the Cycle works to promote the human rights and
empowerment of people living with disabilities in poverty
around the world.
For more information visit endthecycle.org.au
Sources:
1 2004 demographic yearbook- fifty-sixth issue department of Economic and Social Affairs, New
York, United Nations, 2007. Quoted in World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Bank (2011)
World Report on Disability. Geneva: WHO Press (WRD), p 28. (2011)
2 Sixty-sixth session A/66/150. Item 65 (a) of the provisional agenda, Promotion and protection of
the rights of children HYPERLINK
"http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Disability/A.66.230.doc"
www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Disability/A.66.230.doc (2011) accessed July 2013.. from Ann
Elwan, “Poverty and disability: a survey of the literature”, (1999), available from:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPOVERTY/Resources/WDR/Background/elwan.pdf.
3 Disability and Poverty: a Survey of World Bank Poverty Assessments and Implications. Social
Protection Discussion Paper No. 0805. Washington: World Bank
4 World Report on Disability,p206, (2011)
http://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/en/index.html
5 Cited in United Nations Secretary General’s Report on the Status of the Convention on the Rights
of the Child. (2011). UN Document A/66/230, p. 9.
6 World Report on Disability, 2011, p 28.
7 Cited in United Nations Secretary General. (2011). Report on the Status of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, UN Document A/66/230 (p. 12). Retrieved from
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/66/230
8 Convention of the rights of persons with disability, (2012) Conference of States Parties to the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities New York,Sept 2012, link:
www.un.org/disabilities/documents/COP/crpd_csp_2012_crp_5.doc;
Images :
Bangladesh, Wahid Adnan/Drik/CDD/CBMAustralia; Cambodia, Paul Garrett/CDPO/CBM
Australia; Solomon Islands/PWDSI/CBM Australia
Front Cover :
Zolekha Khatun, Bangladesh
End the Cycle is an initiative of CBM Australia.